New York health initiative focuses on alcohol and alcohol marketing

by

In a further effort to increase the health of New York City inhabitants, Mayor Bloomberg intends to limit the sale of alcohol in the city, as well as advertising and promotions for bars and liquor. It is said that the plans seek to reduce the exposure to alcohol marketing in public and retail settings.

Alcohol-related emergency room visits for underage New Yorkers doubled between 2003 and 2009. Alcohol is also a factor in nearly half of all city homicides and 28 percent of vehicle-crash fatalities. Also, 42 percent of accidental subway deaths involve alcohol.

A spokesperson of the Bloomberg administration told The Post that the plans are in line with their ongoing strategies of promoting healthy eating and physical activity and discouraging tobacco, excessive alcohol use and consumption of sugar sweetened beverages, “Specific proposals, however, are still in the planning phase.”

The Huffington Post also reports that the program could perhaps join up with local community boards, that have “attempted to reduce the number of new liquor licenses in the neighborhoods, mostly in an attempt to reduce noise and general rowdiness.”

However, later a spokesperson for the administration told that the plan to limit the number of establishments serving alcohol was scratched.